Wired.com
A federal judge has dismissed a copyright lawsuit filed by Righthaven and rebuked it for for “flagrant misrepresentation” in claiming that it has the legal right to file such suits on behalf of Stephens Media, the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The lawsuit, one of 200 or so similar actions, targets the Democratic Underground blog for pulling four paragraphs from a 34-paragraph story. The judge ruled that Righthaven can’t sue because it doesn’t own the copyright and wrote that Righthaven had failed to disclose that Stephens had a financial interest in the case. (The two companies had agreed to split the proceeds of the lawsuits 50/50.) “Making this failure more egregious, not only did Righthaven fail to identify Stephens Media as an interested party in this suit, the Court believes that Righthaven failed to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party in any of its approximately 200 cases filed in this District,” wrote Chief U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt.
Previous coverage:
> Righthaven contract reveals Review-Journal owner has veto power on copyright lawsuits
> Righthaven drops suit against mildly autistic hobby blogger
> Righthaven sues websites for using Review-Journal’s ‘death ray’ graphic
> Righthaven sues Drudge for using Denver Post photo of TSA pat-down
> Are Righthaven lawsuits enforcement or legal extortion?
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